You only need to google "Malaysia internet sharia law" to understand why it would be a very poor idea to invest in datacenter/telecom infrastructure in Malaysia, domestically. The government is going the same direction as Turkey recently.
In my opinion it's ethically the same as deciding to operate a datacenter in mainland China and sign up for all the government laws, regulations and oversight that goes with it: You can do it from a technical perspective, but many US based companies have explicitly chosen not to do so based on their own ethical standards.
Malaysia has a dual legal system so any sharia law there doesn't apply to non-muslim (40% of the population).
I also don't think the comparison to mainland China is warranted. Mainland China is far worse when it comes to censorship and to tightly controlling anyone hosting data on servers in China. I used to have a company in China and for example if you host user submitted data that are publicly viewable you had to have a system in place to censor anything critical of the government. And, if I remember correctly since I left, companies are required to get and validate a user's phone number when registering to be able to track any user identity if requested. This is way worse than Malaysia.
Even in term of blocking, Malaysia only ever blocks by blocking a the DNS level (same as most European countries), they don't have anything equivalent to the great firewall and they don't prevent users from using DNS servers outside of Malaysia.
Malaysia is definitely not a perfect country, the government is corrupted and in a truly democratic country Najib would not have kept power nor would Anwar have been sent to prison but it's much more free and much closer to a democracy than China.
I wouldn't store any confidential/secure data in a country that you can bribe cops for relatively trivial sums in. That does end up writing off most of the world for storage, admittedly.
I agree about Malaysia: it is extremely corrupt and abuses of power are the norm rather than the exception. That said, US and UK government interventionism and surveillance is really not that different to China. The UK is actually worse in many ways. For example, the UK is reported to record all internet traffic and have the most concurrent media gag orders in operation of any nation.
As an alternative I want to mention the very convenient Dubai Internet City, which is a free zone next to the Dubai Marina district. I was there, left a good impression on me, and the also have no big problem when you trade with other non-freezone companies in the UAE. Microsoft, Oracle and IBM all have a place there.
Ditto, relocated there from Doha. It is conveniently close to a large cluster of AirBnBs, which helps out big time while waiting for a resident's permit.
Cynically: No, it's "Cyber" prepended to "jaya" (used to mean "city" in Malaysia, but apparently derived from Sanskrit for 'victory', ie. a place where a battle was won) - ie. a rebranding of "The city at the place of the victory of the battle of Cyber" to "digital free trade zone".
Realistically: Maybe in part. It looks like in part they are trying to challenge Singapore for air freight logistics. Unfortunately KLIA is miles from KL and nobody really lives out there, so even though you get "express freight handling" the only major nearby markets accessible by road are Singapore and KL (plus some second-tier peninsular Malaysian cities) and in the former case you have to pay to cross another border.
Amusingly: On their promotional video they tout the future as being "borderless" - quite funny as KL is known to be a global center for forged, modified and stolen passports and other identity documentation.
re: first video on page: I like Jack Ma and often agree with him, but his view on globalization is I think incorrect. Sure globalization has helped lift many people in the world out of poverty (good thing!) but I can't buy into giving up countrys' rights to have their own laws and I think preserving local culture is important.
walrus01|9 years ago
https://www.google.com/search?q=malaysia+internet+sharia+law...
In my opinion it's ethically the same as deciding to operate a datacenter in mainland China and sign up for all the government laws, regulations and oversight that goes with it: You can do it from a technical perspective, but many US based companies have explicitly chosen not to do so based on their own ethical standards.
nicolas_t|9 years ago
I also don't think the comparison to mainland China is warranted. Mainland China is far worse when it comes to censorship and to tightly controlling anyone hosting data on servers in China. I used to have a company in China and for example if you host user submitted data that are publicly viewable you had to have a system in place to censor anything critical of the government. And, if I remember correctly since I left, companies are required to get and validate a user's phone number when registering to be able to track any user identity if requested. This is way worse than Malaysia.
Even in term of blocking, Malaysia only ever blocks by blocking a the DNS level (same as most European countries), they don't have anything equivalent to the great firewall and they don't prevent users from using DNS servers outside of Malaysia.
Malaysia is definitely not a perfect country, the government is corrupted and in a truly democratic country Najib would not have kept power nor would Anwar have been sent to prison but it's much more free and much closer to a democracy than China.
toomanybeersies|9 years ago
I wouldn't store any confidential/secure data in a country that you can bribe cops for relatively trivial sums in. That does end up writing off most of the world for storage, admittedly.
contingencies|9 years ago
unknown|9 years ago
[deleted]
faizmokhtar|9 years ago
geff82|9 years ago
happyslobro|9 years ago
danielvf|9 years ago
contingencies|9 years ago
Realistically: Maybe in part. It looks like in part they are trying to challenge Singapore for air freight logistics. Unfortunately KLIA is miles from KL and nobody really lives out there, so even though you get "express freight handling" the only major nearby markets accessible by road are Singapore and KL (plus some second-tier peninsular Malaysian cities) and in the former case you have to pay to cross another border.
Amusingly: On their promotional video they tout the future as being "borderless" - quite funny as KL is known to be a global center for forged, modified and stolen passports and other identity documentation.
wmf|9 years ago
jpatokal|9 years ago
amirbehzad|9 years ago
mark_l_watson|9 years ago
So, globalization is a 'mixed bag.'
vinceyuan|9 years ago